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7 September 2017 2:27 AM

Darren Hayes disses Australian PM and handles backlash spectacularly

By Nick Bond

One-half of 90’s pop duo Savage Garden, solo singer-songwriter and occasional Attitude contributor Darren Hayes is on FIRE lately.

The fun started on Friday, when Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott – a conservative leader if ever there was one, with right-wing views on everything from marriage equality to immigration – spoke about his taste in music during an Australian radio interview. Always on the cutting edge of pop culture, he name checked Savage Garden, who disbanded in 2001, as one of his current favourites.

“I like Savage Garden… it is something that my kids introduced me to,” the Prime Minister said.

However, it’s not exactly a two-way lovefest. Once news reached Hayes that the Prime Minister of his home country loves listening to Truly Madly Deeply (presumably while chowing down on a raw onion), he responded with this brilliantly succinct tweet.

https://twitter.com/darrenhayes/status/578811351855984640

So far, so good. But over the weekend Hayes, who has been married to partner Richard Cullen since 2006, has received the predictable avalanche of trolling on social media from those who found his comments disrespectful to the PM. And he handled them brilliantly – take his interaction with the Twitter user who accused him of being a ‘music industry druggo’:

https://twitter.com/darrenhayes/status/579772716846342145

Then there’s brilliant response to a weak-as diss from a Dalek:

https://twitter.com/darrenhayes/status/579782735985688576

Fellow Aussie pop gems The Veronicas even hopped into the fray for that one, revealing they’re still big Savage Garden fangirls:

Us too, ladies. Moral of the story: Darren Hayes has no qualms about delivering a sick burn to the Prime Minister of his home country, so he certainly ain’t backing down for a few Twitter trolls. #unapologeticdarren

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